From Bashir Masoodi, Crown Point, IN:

Mort Schlein's story about Camp Wapanacki in December's Readers Forum brought back many pleasant memories. I worked with Mort at the New York Institute for Education of the Blind in the late 1950's, when he was director of physical education and I was a scholarship student there. It was at his suggestion that I applied and was hired as a counselor at Camp Wapanacki during the summer of 1957. Dr. Frampton was head of the Institute, the sponsor of the camp. Paul Mitchell was the camp director. There were many international campers and staff and great educational and cultural activities, in addition to the usual boating, swimming, hiking, sleepouts, and other camp programs. There was lots of singing and fun games. Blind children and youth were greatly challenged and motivated. Many made lifelong friendships. They were taught to live independently. There were many tears when the session ended in August. Male campers came for the month of July and female campers for the month of August. I rode the train from New York City to Burlington, VT, where a bus picked us up for the camp in Hardwick. Yet all this was totally free. Dr. Frampton was a great man of vision who later opened a summer school for the gifted blind students at the camp.

I was to spend 40 more years working at summer camps, including being a counselor at the Vacation Camp for the Blind at Spring Valley, NY, and Highbrook Lodge Camp at Chardon, OH, where I became camp director until 1997. I have many fond memories of these summers. The Vacation Camp and Highbrook Lodge also served adults. Both had a special program for newly blinded persons, many of whom literally found a new life in a caring environment. At Highbrook, I also started family and intergenerational camping programs. We had a weeklong session for blind babies and infants with their parents and siblings, and sighted family camp with blind adults. There was mutual support and sharing. I met a loving woman who worked as a nurse at Highbrook and became my wife. Both of our children also worked at Camp Wapanacki and Highbrook Lodge. We are all thankful for the opportunity.

Many of the camps for the blind closed their doors in the 1980's, along with many agencies and schools, thus depriving blind children, youth, adults and seniors of great educational, cultural, social and recreational opportunities.